Remember Me (episode)
Following an anomaly in a warp bubble experiment, Dr. Crusher finds that crewmembers are beginning to disappear, while she is the only one who seems to notice. Summary Teaser : "Chief medical officer's log, stardate 44161.2. We are docking at Starbase 133 for scheduled crew rotation. I look forward to welcoming aboard my mentor and dear friend, Doctor Dalen Quaice, who will be traveling with us to his home planet, Kenda II." When Dr. Quaice, an elderly man, is beamed aboard by Chief O'Brien, he and Dr. Crusher begin talking about his life. Dr. Quaice's wife has died recently, so he is giving up his post in Starfleet and retiring. He tells Dr. Crusher that the worst part of growing old is that all of one's friends, all the people from one's life are gone, and that one never takes the time to appreciate them in their lifetime. Dr. Crusher agrees, telling him that even though she and her late husband, Jack Crusher, only had a few years together, she feels the same way. She continues contemplating what Dr. Quaice said. Meanwhile, in engineering, an eager Ensign Wesley Crusher performs an experiment with the ship's warp engines. Dr. Crusher comes to see him, standing right before the warp core. Suddenly, due to Wesley's experiment, there is a short flash, emitted from the warp core. Chief engineer Geordi La Forge impatiently demands to get "his" warp engines back online, as the experiment fails. Wesley returns the engines to normal control, and when he looks up to talk to his mother, she is gone. Wesley thinks that she simply walked away. The leaves Starbase 133 as scheduled. When Dr. Crusher walks to Dr. Quaice's quarters to visit him for breakfast, the room is empty and unused. When she asks the computer about Dr. Quaice's location, it claims that no Dr. Quaice is aboard the ship. Act One Dr. Crusher calls Worf, who agrees to order a search for Dr. Quaice immediately. However, both are puzzled; Worf, because he was not informed of Dr. Quaice's planned arrival by Captain Picard, and Dr. Crusher, because she thought that Worf was to be informed of the presence of all guests. Worf agrees to put together a search team for him, in case he has been injured however points out that him being injured would not explain his lack of belongings. In Captain Picard's ready room, a puzzled Dr. Crusher learns that there really is no Dr. Quaice aboard the ship. Furthermore, in the privacy of the ready room, Picard indicates that he was also not informed of Dr. Quaice's planned presence aboard ship. Dr. Crusher, astounded, protests that she had submitted her request weeks prior and received approval, while the two try to speculate how this could have happened. When Data checks Starfleet records, he reveals that no hint of the existence of a Dr. Dalen Quaice whatsoever. Even O'Brien can't remember beaming a Dr. Quaice aboard. Act Two Dr. Crusher decides to perform a thorough medical check on the Chief, and when she calls for Dr. Selar and Dr. , she learns that the two of them and four other medical staff have vanished. Picard asks her if they were associates of Dr. Quaice, apparently having no memory of their presence on Dr. Crusher's staff. Wesley Crusher, then in engineering, tells the Captain that his experiment with the warp drive may be connected with the disappearances. Even though it all doesn't fit together, the Captain insists that Wesley Crusher continues to examine his theory. When Dr. Crusher returns to duty in sickbay, all of her personnel have vanished, and sickbay is completely abandoned. She returns to the bridge to tell Picard, Commander Riker and Data, but they are not surprised by the news at all. Dr. Crusher asks Data if it would make any sense that she is the sole medical officer on a ship with more than 1000 people on board but he tells her that the entire crew count is 230. Dr. Crusher talks to Picard in his ready room and she agrees to talk to Counselor Troi to see if she is mentally unstable, but asks the Captain to return the ship to Starbase 133. He agrees to do so. Beverly returns to sickbay and attempts to work, but is distracted by a series of violet flashes and a strange noise. Curious, she turns around and is buffeted by a powerful wind that pulls the flaps of her lab coat and blows her hair forward so that it covers her face. Then before her eyes, a vortex forms, which creates a powerful vacuum. The vacuum gains in strength and sucks in objects from all over the room, until even Beverly begins to be pulled forward against her will. Beverly realizes this and attempts to stop, but she is helpless and is mere moments from being pulled in. Terrified, Beverly screams and she desperately grabs on to sickbay's large replicator. The winds continue to pull at the screaming Beverly, and she nearly loses her grip. However, she is able to hold on until the vortex collapses. Afterwards, the windblown Beverly walks forward and stares at where the vortex was. She then shakes her head in disbelief at what happened to her, and is left badly shaken by her ordeal. Act Three When the senior staff meet in the observation lounge to discuss what happened, she learns that the crew now numbers 114 people. Even Lieutenant Worf has disappeared, and nobody but Dr. Crusher is aware that he ever existed, even though he has served aboard the ship for more than three years. Dr. Crusher rushes to engineering to see if her son, Wesley, has also disappeared, but he is in engineering just as he should be. Wesley asks her if everything is all right, but Beverly replies "no" for they may have very little time left. Wesley claims he's already spoken to Kosinski via subspace, and even he can't figure out what's happening. Wesley suggests the mysterious Traveler might be able to help them. As he and Beverly move to exit engineering, Beverly realizes that her son has also disappeared. Rushing to the bridge, Beverly is horrified to find the room empty, save for the red alert lights blinking and Captain Picard sitting in his chair. Beverly pleads with Picard to try and remember them all - Riker, his first officer, who is very good at playing poker, loves to cook and play jazz; Deanna Troi, the counselor who loves chocolate and has a mother that makes Picard shudder; Commander Data, the android who sits at ops who dreams to be Human and never gets the punchline of a joke; O'Brien; Geordi; Worf; Wesley; all of those who have been the living, breathing heart of the Enterprise for three years. Picard remembers none of them. Beverly realizes that this entire situation seems totally logical to the captain - the two of them roaming about the galaxy in the flagship of the Federation with no crew at all - and indeed, it is logical to Picard, who claims they've never needed a crew before. Beverly orders the computer to monitor Picard's life signs until he disappears, to which Picard agrees. As the computer audibly reads out his vital signs, Beverly prepares to tell Picard something she had been meaning to say for a long time, but before she can say anything, the computer stops monitoring and Picard is gone, his captain's chair empty. Beverly declares to herself that she won't forget any of them. As she stands, the sound of rushing air fills the bridge. Beverly turns towards the viewscreen to find the source as winds begin pulling the sides of her hair forward. The same vortex that appeared in the sickbay reappears in the center of the viewscreen. The vacuum increases, pulling the ops console toward it. The winds sweep Beverly off her feet and she is knocked to the ground and rapidly pulled toward the vortex, stunned. Beverly recovers and, upon realizing her situation, screams and flails desperately trying to find a grip. She is inches from being pulled into the vortex, but manages to grab onto Data's chair. The vacuum then pulls her horizontally, almost into the vortex. Beverly has difficulties maintaining her grip, and she is nearly pulled free. Beverly stares at the vortex in utter terror, and then turns and swings her loose arm to grab the chair and is able to hold on until it dissipates once more. The disheveled and windblown Beverly falls to the ground and stares at the vortex as it fades, and manages to pull herself up into Data's chair as her labcoat falls off one of her shoulders. On the other side of the disturbance, La Forge and Wesley furiously input commands into an engineering console, but before too long, Wesley notices that the warp bubble on his monitor has vanished. Believing his mother to be dead, Wesley claims that "it's over." But, before he can give up hope, an unseen voice speaks "It's not over, Wesley." As he looks over, Wesley is surprised and pleased to see The Traveler once again aboard the Enterprise. Act Four Meanwhile, Captain Picard reports to the captain's log that two attempts to retrieve Dr. Crusher have failed. It is revealed that she is actually the one who has disappeared, into a parallel universe. The Traveler informs Wesley that he is the only one in the crew that can help him return his mother back to her proper reality. Back aboard the warp bubble Enterprise, Beverly attempts to examine the phenomenon of disappearing crewmembers as she would a disease, proceeding from the assumption that she is not insane. Though she catches the computer in several logical contradictions (notably that she is the only crewmember, even though she doesn't possess the skills necessary to complete the Enterprise s mission), she doesn't come any closer to determining how to find any of the crew. Deciding that one of The Traveler's race may be able to help her, she sets course for Tau Alpha C, but immediately upon engaging, she discovers that the entire planet has disappeared. When she tells the computer to turn the view screen on, there is a mist in front of it, and the computer says it is an energy field. She knows there is nothing wrong with her and figures something is wrong with the universe. She asks the computer the nature of the universe. Surprisingly, the computer answers with specifics: it describes the universe as a spheroid region 705 meters in diameter. In the real world, the Enterprise has returned to Starbase 133 and Wesley, with The Traveler's assistance, has succeeded in recreating the warp bubble, by "seeing beyond the numbers." However, the Traveler is disconcerted, because the warp bubble has begun to collapse. They must rescue Dr. Crusher at the right moment, or she will die. Act Five The Traveler and Wesley begin to work on creating a gateway between the real world and the warp bubble, with both 'phasing' in and out of real space and time; they have less than four minutes before the bubble collapses. Beverly finally realizes that it is she that is trapped inside the warp bubble upon seeing a computer-generated visual image of the universe that looks identical to Wesley's experiment. As the bubble begins to collapse, destroying sections of the ship, Beverly continues to query the computer about warp bubbles, until she discovers that the vortex that she has encountered twice may be her means of escape. She decides that the vortex will probably be in engineering, since that is where Wesley would be working trying to create it. She races through the halls of the ship outrunning the collapsing warp bubble, finally arriving in engineering to the sight of the vortex. She jumps through with a few minutes to spare, and lands back in the real world engineering just as the warp bubble collapses. Wesley is exhausted from 'seeing beyond the numbers' and collapses on the table, while Jean-Luc goes to help Beverly to her feet. Beverly sees the Traveler and asks him if he was the one who brought her back. She and Wesley hug, and just to make sure everything is okay, she asks Jean-Luc how many people are aboard the Enterprise. The answer of 1,014, including Dr. Quaice, relieves her. Log entries * Captain's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), 2367 * Medical officer's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) Memorable quotes "Worf. Chief of security. pause The big guy who never smiles? pause The Klingon!" : - Beverly Crusher, talking about Worf to the senior officers about finding the missing members of the crew "You look wonderful!" "A lie I can live with." : - Beverly Crusher, greeting Dalen Quaice when he beams aboard "It's all perfectly logical to you, isn't it? The two of us roaming about the galaxy in the flagship of the Federation. No crew at all." "We've never needed a crew before." : - Beverly Crusher and Jean-Luc Picard "You wanna be the one to explain when the captain says "Engage" and we just sit here?!" : - La Forge, imploring Wesley Crusher to stop his warp bubble experiment in engineering "Oh, I'm sorry. There's no reason to load all this, uh... emotional baggage on you. I usually travel light." : - Quaice, to Beverly Crusher "Is she alive?" "As long as she thinks she is alive, she is alive." "What the hell does that mean?" : - Picard, The Traveler, and Riker "If there's nothing wrong with me, maybe there's something wrong with the universe!" : - Beverly Crusher "Are you suggesting that a bubble could have made Dr. Quaice disappear?" : - Picard "If this were a bad dream, would you tell me?" "That is not a valid question." "Like hell it's not!" : - Beverly Crusher and The Enterprise computer "What is the primary mission of the starship ''Enterprise?" "''To explore the galaxy." "Do I have the necessary skills to complete that mission alone?" "Negative. "Then why am I the only crew-member? ''(the computer takes a moment to process and makes a strange noise) Aha, got you there." "''That information is not available." (waves off the last response) : - Beverly Crusher and the Enterprise computer "Here's a question you shouldn't be able to answer: Computer, what is the nature of the universe?" "The universe is a spheroid region, 705 meters in diameter." : - Beverly Crusher and the Enterprise computer "Get me a graphic representation of the universe." : - Beverly Crusher "My thoughts created this universe. Can they get me out of it again?" "That information is not available." "I'm not talking to you!" : - Beverly Crusher and the Enterprise computer "Jean-Luc, if I may ask, how many people are there on board?" "One thousand fourteen, including your guest, Dr. Quaice." "Is there something wrong with that count?" "No, that's the exact number there should be." : - Beverly Crusher, Jean-Luc Picard, and Geordi La Forge Background information Production history * First draft script: * Final draft script: * Premiere airdate: * First UK airdate: Story and production * This story originated as a subplot for , in which crew members were to have disappeared due to a wormhole. However, it was felt that there was not enough room for both plots, so the premise was developed as a separate episode. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion) * The Traveler was added at the last minute. According to Michael Piller, "The first two drafts did not have the Traveler in it. The first draft ended with the realization of what had happened turning out to be a dream episode. We didn't find that satisfying, so we decided at the end of act three to pull everything from the first 60 pages into the first three acts and tell the audience what's going on on the other side of the warp bubble and how they're trying to get Beverly back. We spend the next two acts deciding how to get her back. At the beginning of the year we said we wanted to bring the Traveler back for something, so why not use him in this episode to help Beverly back." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages) * Director Cliff Bole commented, "They added him because he's big at the conventions. He was just a walk-on." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages) * Gates McFadden did all her stunts for the vortex effects sequences. Shortly after performing the stunt where she is thrown from Data's ops console chair, McFadden learned she was pregnant. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion) * Footage of Starbase 74 from was re-used in this episode to represent Starbase 133. * This is the first episode with black outlines added to the transporter pad. * When Doctor Crusher is walking next to Doctor Quaice it can be seen very clearly, that the sciences uniform exists in various shades of blue, as Dr. Quaice's uniform is a little "greener" than Dr. Crusher's. Of course this could merely be due to differences in laundering. Also, in , Crusher's uniform had been noticeably lighter than the uniforms worn by other science officers. Finally, the new color grading on the Blu-Ray release balances out the two and makes the uniforms nearly the same shade of blue. * In the deleted scene 15A, Dr. Crusher talks to Dr. 's wife Cara who doesn't remember her husband. She was portrayed by actress Marilyn Rockafellow. http://www.st-minutiae.com/resources/scripts/179.txt Music * Composer Jay Chattaway recalls, "This was a different kind of show. I did use some different techniques in that show, since it was one of those "What's wrong" mysteries. For the vortex sequences, I wrote a limited amount of material for the string section, so that they were playing at different tempos. The result was this swirling sound that integrated well with the sound effects." (The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine Vol. 18, pp. 34-35) Continuity * The Traveler's make-up was modified slightly for his second appearance. Here, and in his make-up appears much paler than in his first appearance in . * Ths episode marks the first appearance of the redesigned transporter pad. The new design would remain for the rest of the series, appearing as well in , where it served as the 's transporter and in Star Trek: Voyager as the 's. * The VOY episode features a similar plot device, in which The Doctor finds himself alone on board and must try to determine what is going on. * When Dr. Crusher is pulled into the static warp bubble, she is not wearing her coat. While in the bubble, she puts on the coat. However, when she returns from the bubble, she is still wearing the coat from the bubble. Thus, it can be assumed the bubble contained a physical reality and not simply a manifestation of Crusher's thoughts. Reception * Rick Berman remarked, "That was a very interesting high concept episode. I thought it was possibly a little bit overly confusing. You're fooling the audience a little and I don't like to do that. They were looking at one world when, in fact, we were dealing with parallel universes and that was potentially confusing." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages) * A mission report for this episode by Patrick Daniel O'Neill was published in The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine Vol. 15, pp. 24-26. * Director Cliff Bole comments, "Gates did a very good job on it. Again, that was a savings program. For about 40 percent of the show, it was just her. She was separated in time from everyone else. It's not my favorite show, but I've received more positive letters about that episode than any other. It blew me away. Sometimes they give you a story and they know what it is, but they hope that the mirrors will change everything. It just doesn't happen. The written word is there. You can't just move the camera around and cover a weak script. That's why the Klingons and Borg lend themselves to creativity. It's a real challenge when you have someone running down the ''Enterprise corridor, like in "Remember Me"." ("Cliff Bole - Of Redemption & Unification", ''The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine Vol. 17, p. 31 and p. 34) Video and DVD releases * Original UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 40, . * As part of the UK VHS collection Star Trek: The Next Generation - 10th Anniversary Collector's Edition, under the "Crusher" section, . * UK re-release (three-episode tapes, Paramount Home Entertainment): Volume 4.2, . * As part of the TNG Season 4 DVD collection. Links and references Starring * Patrick Stewart as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard * Jonathan Frakes as Cmdr. William Riker Also starring * LeVar Burton as Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge * Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Worf * Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher * Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi * Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data * Wil Wheaton as Ensign Wesley Crusher Guest stars * Eric Menyuk as The Traveler * Bill Erwin as Doctor Dalen Quaice * Colm Meaney as Miles O'Brien Uncredited co-stars * Rachen Assapiomonwait as * Majel Barrett as computer voice * Nyra Crenshaw as operations division officer * Michael Moorehead as science division ensign * Marilyn Rockafellow as Cara Hill (deleted scene) * Noriko Suzuki as operations division ensign * Uchizono as command division officer * Unknown actor as operations division officer Stand-ins * Nora Leonhardt – stand-in for Marina Sirtis * Tim McCormack – stand-in for Brent Spiner * Lorine Mendell – stand-in for Gates McFadden * Randy Pflug – stand-in for Colm Meaney * Richard Sarstedt – stand-in for Jonathan Frakes * Dennis Tracy – stand-in for Patrick Stewart * Guy Vardaman – stand-in for Wil Wheaton * James Washington – stand-in for Michael Dorn References adrenaline; antimatter containment; Betazoid; bulkhead; breakfast; chocolate; communicator; crew roster; ; death; Delos IV; diagnostic; Durenia IV; Earl Grey tea; EM field; Federation; Ferengi; Ferengi ship; flagship; galaxy; ; ; hull integrity; jazz; joke; Kansas; Kenda II; Klingon; Kosinski; life support; life support ductwork; light; mass spectrometer; mathematics; medical officer; Milky Way Galaxy; millicochrane; Number one; nurse; poker; ; radiation; red alert; Selar; sickbay; shuttle drone; spacetime continuum; star chart; Starbase 133; Starbase 133 planet; Starbase Command; Starfleet; static warp shell; subspace; subspace radio; Tau Alpha C; test tube; The Traveler; thruster; transporter ID trace; ; trombone; turbolift; umbilical port; universe; warp bubble; warp field; ; Deleted material exobiologist; Hill, Cara; husband; marriage; month; osteopath; wife External links * * * * |next= }} de:Das Experiment es:Remember Me fr:Remember Me (épisode) ja:恐怖のワープ・バブル（エピソード） nl:Remember Me pl:Remember Me Category:TNG episodes